Jade | September 30, 2009
Back in June, I created a town called “Meadowbrook”. This month, I’m sponsoring a contest based on that town. All you have to do is create a NPC — an inhabitant of Meadowbrook — using the information given in this blog. The characters I like best will become part of the “official” Meadowbrook setting. In [...]
Category: Contest, Meadowbrook |
6 Comments »
Tags: Contest, Meadowbrook, NPCs
Jade | September 28, 2009
Evil Machinations is branching out. Starting 6 October 2009, I’ll be publishing a free weekly newsletter called “Beg, Borrow, and Steal”. Not a repeat of my blog posts, BB&S will contain:
Small locations you can drop into any game — a tavern, an inn, a spaceport, etc.
NPCs — people you can add to your game
How [...]
Category: GM tools |
2 Comments »
Tags: BB&S, GM tools, newsletter
Jade | September 25, 2009
What is a character web?
A character web is a map — a specific kind of map that charts the relationships of NPCs to one another. It’s a great tool for figuring out how one NPC may respond to another — or to anything related to that NPC. This is a tool to use with your [...]
Category: Musings |
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Tags:
Jade | September 23, 2009
You’ve got your NPCs classified. You’ve separated the extras and walk-ons from the bit players and major characters. But how exactly do you go about creating those unique characters? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create NPCs your players will remember, no matter what game system you use.
Define your NPC’s purpose. Why is he [...]
Category: Building characters, Campaign creation |
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Tags: character creation, NPCs
Jade | September 21, 2009
Not every NPC needs to be memorable. Some can be a barely-noticed presence in the PCs lives, while others need to cast a shadow over everything the players do. While NPCs are vitally important, most GMs have limited time available to work on their game and so can’t spend as much time as they’d like [...]
Category: Campaign creation |
1 Comment »
Tags: NPCs
Jade | September 17, 2009
We all get them: the incessant rules lawyer who challenges your every call; the “loopholer” who will exploit everything not nailed down in the rules to gain that extra +1 advantage; the player who takes everything that happens to their character as an attack on themselves…
Dealing with problem players is never easy. Here’s a collection [...]
Category: GMing philosophy, Working with players |
1 Comment »
Tags: gming, players, problem players
Jade | September 15, 2009
Every GM has a weak spot — mine is running combats. I can manage all of the die rolling and number crunching and “who’s turn is it”, but I am woefully inadequate when it comes to describing combat so that it moves beyond “he hits you with a sword and does 8 points of damage.” [...]
Category: GMing philosophy |
9 Comments »
Tags: combat
Jade | September 10, 2009
Players aren’t the only ones who miss the occasional game session. Every once in a while the GM gets called into work at the last moment, or his wife (or the GM herself!) goes into labor early… there are numerous reasons why a GM might have to miss a particular session.
So with a missing GM, [...]
Category: GM tools, GMing philosophy |
1 Comment »
Tags: missing players, PCs, session ideas
Jade | September 4, 2009
I’m starting a new feature here in this blog. In “From the Basement” posts, I’m going to dig up an older game and review it. Today’s game is Everway.
I have to admit, when it came out, I paid little attention to Everway. Everything I read and heard about it seemed to indicate it was a [...]
Category: Game Systems, Product Reviews |
4 Comments »
Tags: everway, Game Systems, reviews
Jade | September 1, 2009
Here are more quotes from actual game sessions:
General and Out of Character
“This is better than being several hundred people at once.”
“Do you have something to offer up to me as a ‘Get Self Stuck in Appliance’ skill?”
“Give me a resisted Style roll.”
“It’s been changed [...]
Category: Game Quotes, Humor |
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Tags: Humor, quote